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10/12/2019 - Too many wolves
' ' Into the Tunnels As agreed, the group (minus Unit who had stayed behind to keep an eye on things above ground) met Vasilis Venusto at the entrance to the tunnels in the wreck of the Tricksy Talisman. Vasilis lead the group down through the relatively well-lit maze of newer tunnels below the Lower City. After 30 minutes or so they reached a group of three Venusto agents who had been un-blocking the entrance to the older long-abandoned tunnels beneath the Upper City. At this point Vasilis bade them good luck, and retreated back above the surface to ready his men for later. The drowned undead The older tunnels were far less pleasant than the newer ones. There was no natural light and the floor was wet and damp. However, the lack of light was no issue as the more magically-inclined of the group quickly set up some weapon-torches. After negotiating several hundred metres of tunnel the group came to a large cavern with a dank oily river running through its centre. Several rock bridges appeared to provide a route across the river, but they had clearly sustained damage during the earthquake and looked very unstable. As such, Nika decided that she would use her monk-skillz to run across the surface of the river with a rope, which she could then tie off on the other side to give the others something to hold onto if the bridge collapsed. However, as she ran, several gaunt decaying arms reached out of the water and attempted to grapple her. They had found the drowned undead… Thankfully Nika was able to break free of the undead hands and make it to the other side of the river. Battle then commenced, with the group eventually overcoming the six undead that had appeared, largely thanks to some excellent use of fire and radiant damage by Jotham and Corus. Having warned Nika against touching the water, Christo spent most of the fight disapprovingly shaking his head. Why does no one listen to him? After the drowned undead were dealt with, the group made their way across the bridges. Unfortunately, after Khathraa and Rowan ran across the first bridge it collapsed, almost pitching Rowan into the water. Christo, ever the sensible one, ignored the dodgy looking bridges and safely traversed himself around them. Face-first After walking through several hundred more meters of tunnel, the group arrived at another cavern that was similar to the last one but with a grim river meandering through it. This time there were no bridges, but there were several just about jumpable islands to hop across. Nika successfully managed to run across before Rowan attempted a classic triple-jump manoeuvre. Unfortunately though, he decided to do a circular mid-manoeuvre-run-up half way across, and promptly managed to fall face-first into the grim water. Theodore then attempted the same manoeuvre, only to find that Rowan had blocked his path. Rather than ask nicely for him to move, Theodore viciously mocked Rowan out of the way, savaging him so badly that Rowan actually took damage. But karma had its way, and before Rowan could even retaliate Theodore had also managed to fall face-first into the water. Christo, tutting at the incompetence of his allies, also attempted the jump. But his condescension of his friends was short-lived, as he quickly became the third person to fall face-first into the disgusting water. At this point the others realised that this jumping thing possibly wasn’t the best idea. And decided to just wade across. Eyes in the deep After a few minutes the group came to another cavern, this one much larger than the previous, with a huge subterranean lake stretching for several hundred feet ahead of them. Two old rowing boats lay on the lake shore. The group noticed that the water here was even grimmer than the water in the rivers that they had come across previously. They also noticed a large patch of very dark ominously deep-looking water in the middle of the lake… Concerned about what the lake might hold, Rowan spent a few minutes communing with nature, and found out that there were indeed several undead within the lake, and that the deep patch of water was some sort of large hole stretching several hundred feet below the water. He also got the impression there was something else down there, but couldn’t quite figure out what it might be. Theodore then threw a rock into the lake. Almost immediately multiple undead reared out of the water towards the rock, before quickly descending back down into the depths. Khathraa suggested that if they could throw more rocks to attract the undead, then maybe they could take some of them out from afar. The others agreed this was a good plan, so Nika and Theodore lobbed some rocks into the water. As predicted, the undead reared to the surface again, but this time the rest of the group were ready. Khathraa used a transmute rock spell to drop some large chunks of the ceiling on some of the undead whilst Rowan used a well-placed moon-beam to deal with the rest. Battle briefly commenced, but the undead suddenly stiffened up and dived down the large hole in the middle of the lake. After much discussion, and another commune with nature from Rowan, Corus decided to send is arcane eye into the evil looking hole. He watched as the eye first encountered the undead, waiting 30 ft or so below the surface, and then a huge three-eyed, tentacled aberration. Corus had no idea what this was, but the seafaring Theodore recognised the description as being an Aboleth. The group quickly decided that they should probably avoid fighting this large entity. As such, Nika summoned her giant owl, which ferried half the crew across, allowing Jotham to cast silence over the hole, whilst Khathraa used his flying spells to get everyone else across. Greasy bolt time Having crossed the lake successfully, the group found themselves at the tunnels end, with a trapdoor leading up into the fortress. After a flaccid attempt at door-opening by Rowan, Jotham climbed up onto Rowans shoulders and easily opened the trapdoor with his dwarfish strength. The group then attempted to stealthily climb up into what transpired to be the fortress dungeon. Unfortunately, Christo and Khathraa were very much un-stealthy, and two guards were alerted to the group’s presence. As the guards ran away (potentially to tell the rest of the castle of the groups entry), Khathraa redeemed his ungainly entrance by using some ingenious magic to enchant the guards into believing the crossbow bolt he threw at them was the most desirable thing in the world. This went well, as the guards stopped running and quickly began fighting each other for possession of the bolt. Sadly though, Khathraa failed to communicate his bolt plan to the rest of the group, and half of them proceeded to also become enchanted by the bolt. With half-the group and two guards now fighting over a bolt, Rowan and Corus, who had not been enchanted, were thankfully on hand to help. Corus decided to immediately use his magics to make the corridor that bit more slippery with a grease spell, whilst Rowan proceeded to summon eight wolves (yes, you read that right, eight wolves) to join the greasy fray. After a few rounds of fighting, Jotham, bemused and angry with the chaos around him, strode forward and dispelled the magic on the bolt. The group then recovered enough mental capacity to kill one of the guards, before Theodore intimidated the other one into surrender...